All of Me by Tiffany Patterson

Chapter 26

Gabe

A few weeks after the photos of Lena and me in New York surfaced, we were on the way to my father’s for dinner. The images made a few rounds on the blogs and social media, and it seemed like the public moved on. Lena hadn’t put out any statement about it through her public relations people.

I’d gotten a few comments in my social media comments sections and DMs. Anyone who said anything too off-base received a special curse out from me and then an immediate block. Most importantly, Lena hadn’t dwelled on the situation.

“That’s such a shame about Eli’s mom,” Lena said. “How is she doing?”

The night after picking up Lena from my brother’s, we went home, and I shared with her what we found out about Eli. She was insistent about wanting to help. She all but begged me to let her. I knew Eli was a man of pride and didn’t want a handout, but I set it up so that Lena could anonymously pay for his mother’s medications for the next year.

That cost alone took a huge financial burden off of Eli’s back. At first, he thought the money came from Preston or me. After I’d assured him that it hadn’t, and the donor truly was anonymous, he let it go.

“She’s doing better now that she’s getting the medications she needs regularly.” I glanced over. “She starts in-home rehab next week since Eli received his payout from the exhibition.”

“That’s really great.”

Lena reached over and turned down Nine Inch Nails’ “Right Where It Belongs” from my playlist as we turned into my father’s driveway.

I gave her a sideways look, watching her take in the scenery around us. “Do you need to turn the volume down to see better?” I asked. She tended to do that.

“Yes,” she answered as if it made total sense. “How many horses does your father own?”

I paused before turning the car off. “About ten. One for each of us and a few he keeps for racing. Micah bought Jodi a horse and keeps it here, too. So, that makes eleven, I guess.”

While I held the passenger door open for Lena, she looked around while holding her hand over her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun.

I took a moment to scan the length of her body. She wore a floral-patterned romper that was sleeveless. The entire drive over from my house to Joel’s, I was tempted to yank on one end of the belt holding the romper closed and slide my hand in between her thighs.

“You’re so damned horny,” she said, smirking.

“Don’t act like you weren’t thinking about it either,” I said, low in her ear.

“My boy better not be trying to get you pregnant in my driveway,” a loud, deep voice bellowed from the doorway.

Lena sucked in a harsh breath, looking startled and slightly embarrassed.

“I have my own house for that,” I said to my father before taking Lena by the hand.

“Get your ass over here,” he demanded.

“I see where you get it from,” Lena remarked, low enough for only me to hear.

I didn’t get the chance to ask what she meant before we approached my father.

“I almost forgot what you looked like,” he said before pulling me into a hug. Then he turned to peer at Lena.

“You’re always exaggerating,” I said. “Joel, this is Lena.”

“I know who this is.” He had a gleam in his eyes as he smiled. “The girl that set that other boy’s shit on fire.”

Lena’s eyes went wide.

“Joel,” I growled, pissed.

He waved me off. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m sure the fucker had it coming to him. Good on you.” He gave her a wink.

“Why would you say something like that?” I demanded.

“It’s okay, Gabe,” Lena spoke up. She turned to Joel and said, “You’re right, he did. He deserved worse.”

Joel tossed his head back and let out a deep belly laugh. “I bet the son of a bitch did. Come in.”

I stepped aside to let Lena enter first.

“Your home is beautiful, Mr. Townsend.”

I stiffened at the same time I saw my father stop in his tracks.

“Dammit,” I muttered.

He slowly turned to face me, glaring. “You didn’t tell her?”

By then, I could feel Lena looking between the two of us.

Sighing, I shook my head. “Joel doesn’t like to be called Mr. Townsend.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she quickly said.

“No, don’t apologize to his crazy ass. Just call him Joel.” My father had all types of odd hang-ups. That, by far, was one of the most ridiculous, if you asked me.

“Micah and Jodi will be here in ten minutes,” Joel said as we entered the living room of his ranch-style home.

For a while, all three of us—Micah, myself, and Ace, when he was free—would have dinner at Joel’s together at least one night a week. Since I’d been traveling so much for work and spending my nights with Lena, especially now that she’d moved in, I rarely made it over to Joel’s. A fact he’d called and cursed me out about the day before.

“Bring my future daughter-in-law over here so I can meet her before you run off and get married,” he demanded over the phone at six o’clock in the morning.

“Got steaks and some corn on the cob on the grill.” Joel paused and looked at Lena. “I told my other daughter-in-law when she first came over here, so now I need to tell you. I hope you’re not one of those broads who doesn’t like to eat.”

“Dammit.” I stepped in between Joel and Lena. “Will you leave her the hell alone?”

Joel’s eyebrows quirked and that irksome grin of his appeared on his face. “Protective, huh?” He laughed and nodded.

Joel headed through the dining room to the kitchen’s back door out to where his grill was to finish cooking the food.

“Your dad’s quite a character.” Lena laughed as she watched him walk away.

“You haven’t seen half of it.” I took her hand in mine. “Let me give you a tour of the place.”

I showed her around the downstairs portion of the home I grew up in.

Lena’s phone buzzed as we made it back down to the first floor of the house. She pulled it out and groaned as she rolled her eyes.

“What’s up?”

She let out a deep sigh before holding up her phone. “I’m getting a bunch of notifications. That’s never a good sign.”

“Check it out,” I encouraged.

She unlocked her phone and opened one of her social media platforms. “Looks like my ex did a podcast interview. People are tagging me in it.”

She frowned but tucked her phone back into her bag.

“You’re not going to listen to it?” I asked.

“What for?” She shrugged. “I don’t care what he has to say about anything.” She lifted on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

I followed, but the urge to find out what her douchebag ex said that had people tagging her in his interview emerged in my mind. I hadn’t heard any of it, but I still wanted to throttle him for even mentioning her name.

Micah and Jodi had arrived, followed by Ace a few minutes later. Though Ace showed up, he was more quiet than usual throughout dinner. When Joel pointed it out, Ace said he just had a lot on his mind, having to do a special round of training the following week.

However, I saw the way his gaze went to Jodi’s belly now and then when he didn’t realize anyone was looking. I watched as he grew more uneasy throughout dinner. Though we had plans to ride the horses after dinner, he abruptly stood and announced that he needed to leave.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Lena. “You head out with them to the stables.” I directed her to follow my father out the back door.

I went to chase after Ace, who was halfway to his motorcycle by the time I reached him.

“Hey,” I called, grabbing him by the elbow.

He snatched his arm away from me. “Go back inside.”

“Why are you leaving?”

“I’ve got shit to do,” he answered.

“Bullshit.” I knew Ace, and he was leaving for reasons that had nothing to do with work or prior obligations. The truth was, he’d been distant ever since Micah got married. “Why are you leaving?”

“I fucking told you,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Make me beat the truth out of you in Joel’s driveway,” I threatened.

He glared at me. “You’re a pesky little shit. You know that?”

“I’ve been called worse.”

“Fine. What the hell are you doing?” he countered.

My eyebrows lifted. “Me?”

“Yeah. You. Who is this woman you’re bringing around? It’s obvious you’ve fucking fallen in love.”

I inhaled sharply. “What’s your problem with Lena?”

“Nothing.” He waved me off and started to turn away.

I grabbed him again. “Don’t give me that nothing bullshit.”

“It’s all bullshit!” he yelled. “All of it. Micah is sitting up there happy and laughing. His wife is pregnant. Like a few years ago, he wasn’t talking about never wanting to get married.” Ace pointed at me. “Now you come over here with stars in your eyes for a woman who we don’t even know.” His voice was strangled. To anyone else, it might look like my brother was angry, but I knew better.

He was hurting.

“Ace, come back inside.”

“Fuck you and fuck that.” He took a step back. “She’s going to hurt you. They all do,” he said and waved his hand in the air, turning toward his bike.

I let him go, watching as he started up his motorcycle and peeled out of the driveway without a backward glance.

“Is he all right?”

I turned to find Lena standing at the door.

I jogged to meet her on the porch and leaned in to press a kiss on her lips. “You’re supposed to be riding horses.”

“I wanted to wait for you.”

“I’m here,” I said, taking her hand in mine to lead us toward the stables.

* * *

Lena

“You’re not even going to listen to it?” Gabe asked as we entered his house.

The news that Nate had done an interview bothered him. Even when I tried to get him to drop the topic in the car ride home, it still ate at him.

“No.” I whirled around and held out my arms.

“Why?”

“Because that’s what he wants.” I moved closer to Gabe, wrapping my arms around his waist. I could feel the stiffness in the way he held his body. He was pissed off.

Neither of us had heard the actual interview so far, but in an email I received from Demetria, it mentioned that Nate talked about the situation with the fire.

Whatever.

“I’m not about to be a part of his game anymore. This is what he does,” I said to Gabe with a roll of my eyes. “When he doesn’t get a rise out of someone, he throws temper tantrums. He can’t get me on the phone. I’ve blocked him everywhere on social media and refuse to speak to him, so now he’s trying to get to me by going public.”

I shrugged. “He can act like a child on his own. I’m too busy writing this album.” Grinning, I lifted on my tiptoes and kissed Gabe’s lips.

He still scowled but kissed me back.

“That’s not all you’re busy doing,” he said.

I shook my head, laughing. “No, it’s not. Speaking of …” I paused and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him toward the staircase. “I want to sing something for you.”

“Yeah, what?”

I breathed a little easier when it looked like I’d gotten Gabe’s mind off of my dumbass ex and focused on me. Nate was a problem for another day, and truthfully, I felt freer from him by the day. With each song I wrote or arrangement I completed, I felt the hold of his contract loosening from around my neck.

Soon enough, I’d be able to part ways with Nate completely. In the meantime, I had something planned for Gabriel and me.

“It’s upstairs,” I purred.

“I need a shower. I smell like horses,” Gabe grunted as I led him up the stairs. “We’ll shower together.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I said. “Oop!” I yelped when he lifted me over his shoulder and carried me the rest of the way to the bathroom in his bedroom.

Thirty minutes later, we emerged from the shower, clean from the animal smell but a whole lot dirtier from our activities in the shower.

Gabe laid across his bed, dressed in only a pair of boxer briefs, while I laid my head against the back of his shoulder. I lifted my head to get a better view of the wolf tattoo.

“You got more of him shaded in.” I noticed the increased fur on the left side of the wolf’s face, making it look almost entirely mature, like a full-sized wolf. The right side of the tattoo had more colors that made the wildflowers pop.

I was amazed at how the two sides of the wolf came together to form its shape.

“A little more to go,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder. “I thought you were going to sing for me.”

“So impatient,” I admonished, lying my head back down against his shoulder. I waited for a beat and then began singing the first song I’d written that night back in New York. It was about the whirlwind of new love.

“What’s the title of that one?” Gabe asked once I stopped singing.

“‘Tornado’,” I said with a smile.

“I like it.”

“You say that about every song I sing.”

He chuckled. “True, but I also fucking like the song. Love it even.”

My stomach clenched at the four-letter word. A lump formed in my throat, and I turned, placing a kiss to the center of his back. He shivered.

I sat up and began running my pointer finger along one of the petals of the wolf, tracing it. Gabe trembled again.

“Stop that,” he said, swatting my hand away from his back.

“What?” I laughed and traced the wolf’s left eye.

His body shivered again, and I gasped.

“Oh my goodness.”

“Quit.” He reached my hand, but I pulled away.

“You’re ticklish.” I laughed out loud. “The wolf is ticklish.” I grazed all four of my fingers across his back, and his entire body convulsed. I couldn’t stop laughing.

“I can’t believe it.” I found it hysterical that my guy, who could be so damn fierce and strong, almost came apart from a few light touches across his back.

“Believe this,” he growled before moving from beneath me, pinning me against the bed on my back.

Slowly, he lowered his head, dipping to suck my bottom lip into his mouth. I was amazed that after the round we’d just finished in the shower, I could feel moisture pooling in between my legs again.

I’d always enjoyed sex but never had been this insatiable.

“The wolf is ticklish,” I sing-songed when Gabe released me from the kiss.

“I’ll fucking show you ticklish.”

He started to reach for my panties, but I pushed him away and rolled to the other side of the bed. I pulled open the top drawer of his nightstand to get the box of condoms he kept there.

I felt for the box, but instead of making contact with it, my hand grabbed something else. When I lifted it, I realized it was an envelope. The words ‘For Gabe. My Wolf” were written in cursive on the outside of it.

“What’s this?”

As soon as I asked, Gabe snatched the envelope out of my hand and tossed it back in the drawer. He grabbed the box of condoms and slammed the drawer shut.

“Looking for these?” He threw the box onto the bed, but he avoided making eye contact with me.

“Gabe, what was that?” I asked, sitting up on my knees.

“Nothing.” His voice was tight, laced with tension.

“If it were nothing, you wouldn’t be so pressed about it. What was it?”

“I said it was nothing, Lena. Let it go.” The increased volume of his voice only spurred my curiosity.

“A woman wrote it,” I said. I could tell from the handwriting. “Are you keeping letters written by other women in your nightstand?”

I felt stupid for even asking. Maybe it was an important letter from an ex of his that he didn’t want to part ways with. A part of his history that he didn’t want to let go of. I should’ve been sensitive to that, but I wasn’t.

“If you’re keeping letters from other women, tell me now because I am not going through any of the bullshit I dealt with in my last relationship again.”

Gabe pinned me with a scowl. “Don’t ever compare me to that douchebag.”

“Then tell me what that was? Who is it from?”

I wanted to know more than I wanted my next breath. The fact that Gabe’s entire demeanor changed when he saw that letter in my hand told me it was important to him in some way.

I wasn’t sure if my heart could take it if it was something from another woman he was in love with, or at least seeing.

“It’s from my mother,” he finally said, his voice barely audible.

Frowing, I sat back on my heels.

Gabe slowly pulled open the drawer, retrieving the letter. He held it up, turning it around. “It’s a letter from my dying mother.”

“Gabe.” I glanced up at the envelope in his hands. “It’s unopened,” I said, staring at the closed seal.

His jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth. He stared at the envelope in his hands. “I’ve never read it.”

I did the math in my head. Gabe was only twelve when his mother died, and he was twenty-eight now.

“You haven’t opened a letter your mother wrote to you sixteen years ago?”

He gave me another sharp look before turning and shutting the envelope back in the drawer.

“Why?” I asked.

“I just haven’t.”

“Aren’t you curious about what she wrote to you? She must’ve wanted you to read it if she left it for you.”

“I couldn’t.”

His voice was thick with emotion. My eyes watered at hearing the struggle in his voice. Neither one of us spoke for at least a full minute. Gabe suddenly shook his head and started for the bathroom. He slammed the door behind him.

My gaze traveled over to the closed nightstand. I hated the pain I heard in his voice and the expression on his face as he stared at the letter.

I crawled over to the nightstand and pulled it open. The letter sat there, unopened. I didn’t dare to touch it, but I knew whatever was in it, Gabe needed to read it. The last words his mother would ever give to him. And he’d been carrying it around for sixteen years, never reading them.

When I heard the sound of the shower starting in the bathroom, I knew he would be in there a while. He was avoiding me, or the letter … probably both. I considered going in there and forcing him to talk to me about it, but instead, I picked up my notepad that sat on the nightstand on my side of the bed and began writing.

Maybe what I penned in a song could give him the courage to eventually read what his mother wanted him to read, someday.